


Lab Rat Christmas Special

by Obvious Reactionary (Mysterious_Prophetess)



Series: Lab Rat [19]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 02:23:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17674622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Obvious%20Reactionary
Summary: It's a festive time of year, even for the aliens amongst the Voltron family. Sometimes traditions can be down right weird. Other times, they can be just what someone needs.Merry Very Belated Christmas!





	Lab Rat Christmas Special

Keith looked around at the space port that had sprung up in the desert not far from where he’d called ‘home’ for most of his life. The wide open spaces were ideal for landing ships. Plus, it also being near the residence of an Imperial Princess didn’t hurt either. Plenty of different species had decided to call Earth home.

“It reminds me of how things used to be.” Keith jumped half a foot in the air. Sincecline laughed and messed up the hair between his ears.

“When did you get to Earth?” Keith asked.

“Only a few quintants ago. Merra and Herra are busy dragging your mother to the nearest Galran food stand,” Sinecline said.

“Any of the others here?” Keith asked.

“Can’t have all of us, sadly. What’s left of the empire is too big for that, but I thought I’d pay my favorite nephew a visit!” Sinecline said.

“I’m your only nephew?” Sinecline laughed and messed with Keith’s hair more.

“Why are there so many extra lights and fake plants on the Earthling stalls?” Sinecline asked.

“It’s because of an Earthling Holiday: Christmas,” Keith explained.

“Christmas? What’s it about?”

“I’ve got this one.” Keith and Sincecline turned to see Ji-hun had caught up to them. “Besides, didn’t you say you were meeting up with the others?” _Oh quiznak!_ Keith nodded and waved to Sinecline before he took off running.

———————— —————————————————— ——————————

“I often forget how good your acting is until I see it, Sinecline,” Ji-hun said.

“I was the spy master for a reason. So, is “Christmas” another way of saying that “Keuliseumaseu” holiday you were talking about before?” Sinecline said.

“Yes,” Ji-hun said.

“Why’d you say it that way?”

“Because sometimes speaking about things in Korean is easier for _both_ of us than for me to use English,” Ji-hun said. Sinecline shrugged.

“Not my fault this “English” is a mess of a language. I did get as many of us to come to Earth as possible but I wasn’t lying to our little nephew. Some of us cannot be away from our duties for too long. Me especially. No wonder my father went evil, that paperwork generated by even a now legitimized empire will kill me someday.”

———————— —————————————————— ——————————

“Your uncle _the Emperor_ is here?” Pidge asked.

“Yeah. Snuck right up on me. Apparently my aunts ambushed my mom too,” Keith said.

“Wonder why a bigger deal wasn’t made about Emperor Sinecline being on planet,” Shiro said.

“Wasn’t he like a super spy before?” Lance said.

“And?” Keith said.

“Oh. Right! He’d be all sneaky!” Hunk said.

“Knew you’d smell what I was cooking!” Lance looked very pleased with himself.

“Isn’t their timing a bit suspiciously close to a holiday where family is important?” Pidge said.

“I doubt aliens know about Christmas,” Shiro said.

“What about that Earth shop Pidge and I found on the Space Mall Moon? Maybe aliens really took to the Christmas cheer and imported it!” Lance said.

“Some of the alien shops are decorated,” Keith said as he looked around. An Olkari run shop in particular had very festive decorations-in fact there was a living Christmas tree that had lights growing out of its boughs in the front window.

“I rest my case!” Lance said.

“I have an idea, what if we split up and saw how the aliens are interpreting Christmas and each get the weirdest result we can find? The best one wins one of Hunk’s Yule log cakes all to themselves!” Pidge said.

“I’m game! Though, what do I win?” Hunk said.

“Premium baking supplies,” Pidge said without missing a beat.

“Oh, it’s on!”

———————— —————————————————— ——————————

Pidge decided to just go into the Olkari shop.

“Green Paladin! It’s good to see you,” the Olkari greeted.

“Good to see you too. What do you think of Christmas. I saw your tree, very nice,” Pidge said.

“It was explained to me by a kind elderly human woman and it’s wonderful how a holiday dedicated to giving is a very important cultural touchstone for a large portion of your planet,” the Olkari said. Pidge looked over and inspected something odd. It looked like a mini-battle bot, just like the ones they’d used to retake Olkarion. Except these had little hats and beards?

“I’d heard of little defenders of Christmas trees—the Nuhcraka—and decided to make my own version of them,” the olkari said.

“I’ll take one!”

———————— —————————————————— ——————————

Hunk smelled something familiar and saw a sign that read “Veript Sals” and there was Sal himself. On Earth still with his robotic side kick. The Galran visitors seemed to patronize him a lot.

“Hey! If it isn’t my best part-time worker ever,” Sal said waving to Hunk once the lunch rush cleared his counter.

“When did you get to Earth?” Hunk asked.

“A few months ago. The mall was charging too much for rent and this was the opportunity of a lifetime! I even had a couple of princesses in here earlier! What do ya say to working here again?” Sal said.

“Nah, got a bigger gig to deal with,” Hunk said politely waving it off.

“Shame. Though, I gots a local delight for you. They call it “Eggnog.” I’ll even accept Earth Currency for it.” Hunk paused and nodded. _Wonder what an alien’s take on this will be like?_ Hunk slapped down the listed Earth money amount and the drink he was offered looked…um… _interesting_.

“Is it suppose to be smoking like the?” Hunk asked.

“Of course!”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

Lance nearly did a double take at the giant bubble in the middle of the desert space port.Then he saw it was the mer-like aliens from the planet he and Hunk had crash-landed on.

“It’s one of the Paladins!” The mer-man nearest the edge said. The words were slightly distorted. He placed a headset on his head and that’s when Lance noticed the speakers set up outside the bubble. Or he thought it was a speaker.

“It’s you!”

“Yep. It’s me. How’d you guys end up here?” Lance said.

“We were contacted by more aliens after you left and we opened up trade of some of the fish from our planet. They are really useful in medicine, and people like some of the dead coral for jewelry. So here we are.” Lance saw the circling electric eel like fish that were swimming near the tops of the bubble.

“Why are those up there?” Lance said.

“It’s for the Earthling holiday coming soon. Firn saw others putting up lights and asked why and they told us of this delightful Sandy Claws, and we thought it would be fun to celebrate too! We had no idea you had such a lovely celebration!” Lance shrugged before he looked over and his jaw dropped.

“You like our Sandy Claws?”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

Shiro found the Iyurians and their Christmas displays were the most traditional amongst the aliens he’d seen as he walked around. _Doesn’t hurt that they have been on Earth the longest_. Though, he noticed a few extra things and the fact Santa seemed to be flying a space ship.

“I see you admiring our own version of the story, Champion.” Shiro looked at the Iyurian woman who’d spoken.

“Why is there a shadowy form tracking Santa?” Shiro asked.

“Because it is the spirit of mistrust and darkness. Santa must fly fast with his craft or he’d be overtaken and despair would take hold of the world,” the Iyruian woman said.

“But hope always wins, right?” Shiro said.

“Of course.”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

Keith ran right into Allura and Coran as well as their Altean contingent as they decked the front halls of the recently landed Castle Ship.

“Ah! Number Four. Perfect. You can help us get these up!” Coran said.

“After hearing about you all talking about Christmas on the ship, we’ve decided to combine it with our own Winter Holiday, Luxemex,” Allura said.

“How do you celebrate that?” Keith asked while he helped the Alteans put up decorations.

“We light a lot of fires and drink some traditional allelex grog. We also have the yearly fire dance competition and songs!” Coran said.

“Then we usually settle in to tell the story of the Great Luxeme and how she beat back the evil Shadox with her fire and saved all of Altea from his wrath,” Allura said.

“Princess, where should we put the torches?”

“Right next to the tree would be nice. It’ll make the fake icicles we put on it at Lance’s insistence sparkle,” Allura said.

“I..wouldn’t do that. Trees….real ones like that tend to burn easily,” Keith said.

“Oh. Right. A bit farther away then!”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

“So, behold the Olkari take on a nutcracker!” Pidge said once they met back up in the lounge of the Castleship.

“It’s a droid?” Lane said poking the bearded mini-bot.

“It protects the trees,” Pidge said.

“I have this,” Hunk said. He looked a little green. It was a drink that was…smoking and smelled just very…. _off_.

“What is that?” Lance asked.

“Galran Eggnog,” Hunk said. Everyone’s eyes went to Keith.

“What?”

“Does that smell good to you?” Lance asked. Keith gave it a sniff.

“A little. Could use less spices. Mom might know which ones,” Keith said.

“What in the worlds is that?” Twyla entered the room with Ji-hun.

“A Galran take on Eggnog?” Hunk said.

“Oh. You went to Veript Sals? It’s ok. Could use a lot less Kulian barktree root. It wouldn’t smoke if he backed off it,” Twyla said.

“It it safe for human consumption?” Pidge asked.

“Should be, even at those quantities,” Twyla said. Hunk had paper cups and poured the drink into it offering it to the others who tried it.

“That’s just…weird. Almost tastes like…apple cider instead of Eggnog?” Shiro said when he set his glass down.

“Ok, feast your eyes on this!” Lance pulled up his bag and revealed a lobster-humanoid-thing covered in red and wearing some sort of red seaweed cloak that was lined with white.

“Is that…Santa?” Pidge asked poking at it.

“It’s Sandy Claws. Hunk, remember the planet with the Mer-people and the killer garden? This is how they interpreted Santa Claus!” Lance said displaying it proudly.

“It almost goes with my “nuhcraka,”” Pidge said.

“I ran into some Iyurians and their Christmas is a lot like ours but they have a dark monster their Santa outruns in his space ship,” Shiro said pulling out a small diorama he’d bought featuring Santa in his ship and the monster.

“Allura and Coran had an Altean story like that. That and their winter holiday features fire,” Keith said.

“Anything else?”

“This,” Keith pulled out a sort of shimmery quasi-Altean fairy thing. It looked like it was made out of a crystal.

“Their Holiday figure Luxeme,” Keith said setting it with the others.

“Where’d you get that?” Keith saw Coran had entered the room with armfuls of tinsel.

“Found a pirate swap stand,” Keith said.

“So, I don’t think anyone won….but what if we just decorated the common area with this stuff instead,” Pidge said gesturing at the stuff that wasn’t food.

“Excellent idea Number Five, not that I know what you’re talking about. Oh, is that a drink?” Coran said. He grabbed the Galran “eggnog” and downed it.

“Could use less Kulian barktree root but otherwise not bad!”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

Keith and the other Paladins—more often than not—stayed in the Castleship whenever it was on Earth to catch up with Allura and Coran and connect with the Alteans whose cultural artifacts—The Lions of Voltron—they piloted. So, Keith was slightly surprised whenever he arrived in the common area after his morning training to see all but four of his aunts and uncles gathered there around a very weird looking tree-like-thing covered in lights. Also present were Matt Holt and his parents, Hunk’s family, Lance’s Family, as well as Shiro’s dad and Adam.

“We received an invite for a Christmas Party,” Matt explained whenever Pidge trudged into the room with a ‘Wtf’ look on their face.

“It was my idea, so don’t get too worked up,” Twyla said entering the room.

“But Christmas isn’t for a few days,” Shiro said.

“Coran and I thought you’d prefer to spend those with your families, but since the holiday seems to be partly about gathering those you care about to celebrate, we wanted to have this party first,” Allura said.

“It’s also our way of thanking you for all your hard work in protecting the Universe!” Coran said.

“Which is why we took care of the food,” Hunk’s mother said gesturing at the parents.

“Except me. What I make isn’t palatable by human or Altean standards,” Twyla said.

“Trust us, you’ll be thankful for that,” Anjuna stage-whispered. Twyla gave her sister a glare, but it lacked any real heat.

“Ji-hun tried to explain your holiday to us, but the most we could really get out of it was that was a time to gather around a large plant you dragged inside and exchange gifts,” Arlioth said.

“There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s close enough,” Ji-hun said.

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

After food and drinks had been distributed and everyone gathered into familial clumps, Coran had gone into a recitation about the Altean Winter Holiday.

“…and the fires of Luxeme blazed on.” Allura and Sincecline clapped. _That’s right, Sinecline is half Altean_.

“What’s the Galran Midwinter Holiday like?” Sam Holt asked.

“We celebrate past victories,” Twyla said.

“Or, if you’re civilians we celebrate all the accomplishments of that year,” Arriora explained.

“It’s also a time of year to give our youngest members new weapons, but since your holiday is about Peace, we decided to forgo that for other types of gifts,” Sinecline said.

“Weapons are now strictly for celebrations of life!” Arlioth said.

“So, do we need to even ask which victory would be celebrated?” Shiro said.

“It is rather obvious. Ordinarily a weapon made from parts of our enemies ships or amor would be presented but a more creative application was done instead. Ji-hun?” Twyla looked over at Ji-hun who walked out and came back with a hover cart. On it made of welded scrap metal was a sculpture of Voltron and each of the lions was present at its feet.

“Each paladin gets their own lion while we are gifting the statue of Voltron to Princess Allura,” Sinecline said.

“Thank you very much. What metal is this?” Allura asked.

“Whenever we dismantled our father’s old flag ship for new parts, we took a piece of the hull for this. Then we asked Ji-hun to help us in shaping the metal,” Twyla said.

“A symbol of oppression turned into a symbol of hope. It was the kind of poetic sugary nonsense Sinecline loves,” Anjuna said.

“I liked it too,” Arlioth said.

“You’re as sappy as he is.”

“Do you also retell the battles?” Matt asked.

“We do, but most of us where there that day,” Twyla said.

“I wasn’t and I’d like to hear it,” Colleen Holt said taking a seat. The Galran siblings looked to one another and at the Alteans.

“Would you mind?” Sinecline asked.

“Of course not, just let me chime in with the stuff you don’t know and we’ll be right as rain!” Coran said.

“My thanks. Now, before we begin we must go back to where this started……”

———————— —————————— ———————— ——————————

Keith sat drinking proper eggnog watching others playing some sort of game that Coran was attempting to teach them to do with fire.

“How’d we do?” Twyla asked sitting next to him.

“This is nothing like any Christmas I’ve ever had,” Keith said.

“Bad or good?” Ji-hun took a seat on Keith’s other side.

“Definitely good.”

**_The End._ **

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to have this up before Christmas. I really did. But I couldn't get an ending to it worked out.  
> With this, _Lab Rat_ is officially done.  
> I had once promised a Christmas Special and I felt bad I never delivered on it. Until now.  
> So even though it's nearer to Valentines Day, here it is.
> 
> Do _not_ tell me anything about season 8, I don't have Netflix so I haven't seen it.


End file.
